William Wyler

William Wyler (1902-1981), German-born American motion-picture director, known for his many meticulously crafted, award-winning films. He was born in Mulhouse, Germany (now part of France), and was educated in Switzerland and France. In Paris in the early 1920s Wyler met his distant cousin Carl Laemmle, head of Universal Studios, who offered him work in Hollywood, California, and in 1922 he went to the United States to begin his apprenticeship in films. At Universal he learned the craft thoroughly, working his way through nearly every position before becoming a director in 1925. After several years of directing small-scale Westerns, Wyler assumed more challenging projects, and, in the early 1930s was responsible for such films as Hell's Heroes (1930), Tom Brown of Culver (1932), Counsellor-at-Law (1933; with John Barrymore), and The Good Fairy (1935; with Margaret Sullavan). In 1936 he was signed by American producer Samuel Goldwyn, a fruitful collaboration that was to last for ten years, during which he made some of his best-loved pictures, including These Three (1936), Dodsworth (1936), Dead End (1937), Jezebel (1938), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Letter (1940), The Little Foxes (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). The latter two films, which did much to help film audiences adjust to the harsh realities of World War II (1939-1945) and its aftermath, won Wyler his first two Academy Awards for best director, also earning the awards for best picture.

During World War II Wyler served in the Army Air Corps and spent most of his time directing three highly regarded documentaries. When he returned to Hollywood, he continued to make prestigious films, often producing them as well. His postwar output includes The Heiress (1949); Detective Story (1951); Carrie (1952); Roman Holiday (1953), the debut of Audrey Hepburn; Friendly Persuasion (1956); The Big Country (1958); The Children's Hour (1962), a remake, under American playwright Lillian Hellman's original title, of his film These Three; The Collector (1965); and Funny Girl (1968). The biggest film of his later career, the epic Ben-Hur (1959), won Wyler his third Academy Award for best director and was also named best picture.

Although Wyler's reputation declined slightly toward the end of his life as audience tastes changed, his 25-year career accumulated an astonishing number of highly regarded films. In 1965 he was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts an Sciences with the Irving Thalberg Award, and in 1976 the American Film Institute bestowed on him its Life Achievement Award. A documentary film on his life and work, Directed by William Wyler, was released in 1986.